BMI View: The United Kingdom has one of the oldest, largest and most well-developed financial services sectors in the world. It is a regional leader in terms of the total economic contribution of financial services, and only in Luxembourg and Switzerland does the industry form a larger proportion of the country's total economy within Western Europe. However, this means the industry is saturated, and opportunities will lie in innovation and through mergers and acquisitions. This trend is already playing out across the financial services sub-sectors. The UK economy's reliance on financial services will not wane over the next ten years, though the relationship between the UK and EU post-Brexit, and in particular the fate of the passporting system that allows EU-based companies to operate in the UK, will be a major factor in the industry's growth trajectory.